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OWNING'S POEMS 

(Selected) 



BY 



AUSTIN MELVIN WORKS, B.A., MA. 

iNSTiRucroR 0-F English, De Witt Clinton High Scitoot, 
New York City 



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Browning*s Poems (Selected) 



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BROWNING'S POEMS 

(Selected) 

BY 

AUSTIN MELVIN WORKS, B.A., M.A. 

Instructor of English, De Witt Clinton High School 
New York City 



NEW YORK 

GLOBE BOOK COMPANY 

175 FIFTH AVENUE 

Flatiron Building 






Copyright, 1921 
GLOBE BOOK COMPANY 



FEB 26 1921 
©CU605913 



'W^ 



BROWNING'S POEMS (Selected) 

General Nature of Work 

The eleven minor poems of Robert Browning to be 
considered here are, with the exception of One Word 
More, so many examples of dramatic or objective poetry. 
As soon as the personality of an author obtrudes itself 
into his work, that work ceases to be dramatic and be- 
comes subjective or lyrical, as in the case of the poem 
mentioned above, in which we hear Browning himself 
in his own person addressing his beloved wife, Elizabeth 
Barrett. Subjective poetry, in the strictest sense of the 
term, is very unusual with Browning, although his intense 
personality is always to be felt, yet seldom seen or heard, 
in "all he has written. 

Of the various forms of dramatic poetry Browning is 
most interested in the dramatic monologue, which we 
shall describe at some length when we come to discuss 
the construction of his verse. 

Preparatory Information 

Browning lived and wrote in England during the Vic- 
torian period, but his writings are historically and geo- 
graphically broader than his time and his country. They 
treat of many ages and many climes ; he was, however, 
especially fond of the m)s4ie.val period and of Italy, where 
he lived for many years and where, in 1889, he died. 



4 BROWNING'S POEMS 

In a literary sense Browning's work had very little 
effect upon the writers of his time. He did, however, 
impress upon later poets the value of his favorite poetic 
form, the dramatic monologue, which since his day has 
come to be more and more frequently met with in liter- 
ature, and it is evident that his f r,iend and contemporary, 
Tennyson, appreciated the effectiveness of this form, as 
he too made use of it in such poems as Ulysses, Rizpah, 
and The Northern Farmer. Politically also Browning 
exerted little or no influence upon his time. He was in- 
deed an ardent liberal, but his interests lay in other fields 
of activity and with the exception of the poem Why I am 
a Liberal, he wrote nothing that concerned itself directly 
with the political issues of his day. 

Socially, however. Browning's influence was immense. 
His courage, his optimism, his serene conviction that the 
soul or spirit is separate from and greater than all ma- 
terial forces opposed to it, and his reasoned faith in the 
splendid goal of human life and the ultimate triumph of 
love, constituted a direct challenge to much of the mate- 
rialistic, philosophical and scientific thought of his age. 
With the passing of years he has drawn to an acceptance 
of his views of Hfe and death an ever increasing number 
of admirers in all civilized countries. 

SYNOPSES 

Cavalier Tunes 

r 
The three dramatic lyrics comprehended under this 
title are meant to give us a vivid idea of the narrow but 



BROWNING'S POEMS 5 

whole-hearted enthusiasm of the CavaUers, as typified by 
Sir Byng, for the cause of King Charles, and their su- 
preme contempt for Pym and the other "Roundhead" 
followers of Cromwell. 



The Lost Leader 

This poem expresses Browning's sorrow over the de- 
fection of Wordsworth from the cause of liberalism to 
that of conservatism and Toryism, of which offense 
Browning felt that his brother-poet had made himself 
guilty by his acceptance of the Poet Laureateship made 
vacant by the death of Southey, such a position naturally 
entailing upon. the holder the obligation to support gov- 
ernment policies even at the expense of his own convic- 
tions. The poem is full of tender regret rather for the 
wrong the great "lost leader" has done to his own moral 
nature, than for the injury he has inflicted upon his 
followers ; it is therefore written in a strain similar to 
that of Whittier's Ichabod, occasioned by a speech of 
Daniel Webster which the Quaker poet interpreted as an 
indication that Webster was inclined to compromise with 
the Southern slave-holders. Browning later came to the 
conclusion that he had wronged Wordsworth in these 
verses and frankly apologized to the latter for the real 
or fancied injustice. 

How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix 

This dramatic romance is entirely imaginary, but loses 
nothing in force by not being based upon historical facts. 



6 BROWNING'S POEMS 

It is a vivid picture of three horsemen who gallop from 
moonset to sunrise and from sunrise to noonday, carry- 
ing the news that shall save Aix from some fate not 
explained, probably self-imposed and possibly a shame- 
ful and unnecessary surrender to the enemy. One horse 
drops dead on the way; the second within sight of Aix; 
but the third, staunch Roland, nobly answering to his 
rider's impassioned pleadings — ^his nostrils filled with 
blood and his eyes rimmed with red — gallops on into the 
market-place where he falls to the ground exhausted, 
to be revived by the last measure of wine left in the city, 
voted by all to be only the just due of the noble animal. 

N Evelyn Hope 

This beautiful romantic lyric represents the speaker as 
standing beside the coffin of the young girl whom he has 
long loved, vainly and in silence. The lover was much 
older than Evelyn and was even a stranger to her. Now 
she lies before him, forever deaf to his words of affec- 
tion. But he is sure that God puts into the hearts of 
human beings no desires or needs which He will not 
eventually satisfy for them, and he feels confident that 
no matter what worlds he must first traverse nor how 
many lives he must live before that divine moment 
arrives, Evelyn Hope will ultimately be given to him. 

Home Thoughts, from Abroad 

This descriptive poem pictures an Englishman in a 
foreign land fondly recalling an English spring with its 



BROWNING'S POEMS 7 

budding leaves and opening blossoms, its sunshine and 
dew, its bird-songs thrilled through with rapture. To the 
disadvantage of the alien clime, he compares its "gaudy 
melon-flower" now blowing at his feet with the simple 
English buttercup he remembers and loves so well. 

Home Thoughts from the Sea 

This is one of Browning's few poems of patriotism. 
The sight of Trafalgar, the scene of Nelson's great vic- 
tory over the French, illumined by the blood-red glow of 
the setting sun, arouses national pride and gratitude in 
the mind of an English traveler at sea, and he wonders 
what he can do for England to prove that gratitude 
sincere. 

Incident of the French Camp 

This dramatic romance tells the story of a boy soldier 
in the army of Napoleon. While planting the Imperial 
flag within the walls of Ratisbon, he has been mortally 
wounded. But by a mighty effort of the will he manages 
to gallop out to the spot — a mound situated about a mile 
or two from the town — from which the Emperor has 
been watching the storming of Ratisbon. He flings him- 
self from his horse and by clinging to its mane contrives 
to hold himself erect long enough to announce to Napo- 
leon the victory of his arms. He gives no outward sign 
of his agony, but when the Emperor suddenly espies the 
blood upon his breast and cries, "You are wounded !" his 
soldier's pride is touched and with the words, "Nay, 



8 BROWNING'S POEMS 

Sire, I'm killed," upon his lips, still smiling, he falls dead 
at the feet of his chief. Although the hero of this story 
of the triumph of will or spirit over matter was not a 
boy but a grown man, this incident did actually occur 
in about the manner described by the poet. 



The Boy and the Angel 

This poem, a legend of Browning's own invention, pre- 
sents the poet's conviction — even more beautifully ex- 
pressed in his Pip pa Passes — that all things, even the 
humblest, have their place and their work in God's uni- 
verse; that, as Emerson says: 

There is no great and no small 
To the Soul that maketh all. 

Theocrite w^as a poor boy who, as he toiled at his 
humble task, praised God daily and wished that he might 
become Pope in order to praise Him the better. Theo- 
crite fell sick and appeared to die. Awakening he found 
himself a priest, and, in the course of time Pope. But 
God longed for the simple sort of praise that the boy 
Theocrite had been wont to^ give Him, and the angel 
Gabriel descended from Heaven to take the lad's place. 
Still, God was not satisfied. The angel's praise could not 
replace the praise of that simple human heart. 'The 
silencing of that one weak voice had stopped the chorus 
of creation." Therefore Theocrite returned to his humble 
self of earlier days, and the angel Gabriel ruled in his 
stead at Rome. 



BROWNING'S POEMS 



One Word More 



This is a lyrical love poem expressive of the poet's own 
feelings. After Browning had completed his Men and 
Women, a volmiie of verse in which he had spoken 
dramatically through the mouths of fifty different char- 
acters, he concluded the work with this lyrical tribute to 
his wife. Most men bestow upon their beloved the gifts 
of their finest and most finished talents, but Browning 
feels that such gifts have often become too common 
through contact with the sordid world. He says that 
every artist therefore has longed to express himself at 
least once and for one only in a language distinct from 
his art, in order that his gift to his love may be unique, 
may be different from his gift to the rest of the world. 
In bestowing such a gift he obtains the "man's joy" with- 
out the "artist's sorrow." Thus Raphael the painter 
wrote a book of sonnets to be read by his love only, and 
Dante, the great Italian poet, once drew an angel in mem- 
ory and in honor of his beloved Beatrice. Browning, 
ht)wever, has nothing but his verse to offer. Still as a 
fresco painter may take a hair brush to paint flowerets 
on the margin of his lady's prayer-book — as "he who 
blows through bronze may also breathe through silver" 
for the purpose of a serenade — so he too may put his 
gift to a different use. In the volume he has just com- 
pleted and dedicated to his wife — his Alen and Women — 
he has spoken dramatically through fifty different char- 
acters : he will now in One Word More speak as a lyric 
poet to her alone. 

At the end of the poem he compares both himself 



lO BROWNING'S POEMS 

and his wife to the moon which presents always the same 
surface to the earth, but to the loved one, to the moon- 
struck mortal, shows another side unseen by ordinary 
human beings. 

Herve Rial 

This dramatic romance celebrates the courage, the 
skill, and the simplicity of heart of a Breton sailor, who 
after the defeat of the French fleet at Cap la Hogue 
and while the whole squadron was still fleeing before the 
victorious English in a supreme effort to reach the land- 
locked harbor of St. Malo, guided all the vessels safely 
through tjie shadows of the river Ranee, although the 
natives of St. Malo themselves had declared such a feat 
through the shallows of the river Ranee, although the 
simple reward. When asked what he demanded in re- 
turn for his great service to France, the hero asked 
merely for one day's leave of absence in order that he 
might go home to Croisic and see his wife, La Belle 
Aurore. 



Pheidippides 

Pheidippides is a dramatic idyl treating of a story 
from legendary Greek history. When the Persian forces 
threatened to invade and overwhelm Athens, the Athe- 
nians sent a swift courier to Sparta to ask for help 
against the enemy. This courier, Pheidippides, was un- 
successful in his mission, because the superstitious 
Spartans refused to enter upon any warfare before the 



BROWNING'S POEMS ii 

moon was at its full, but as he was hastening back, he 
encountered the god Pan, who promised him to help 
the Athenians in the coming battle, despite the fact that 
of all the Greeks they alone had refused to pay him 
honor. After the battle of Marathon had been won by 
the Athenians, Pheidippides was despatched to Athens 
to announce the great victory. He had just strength 
enough left when he reached his goal to cry, ''Rejoice, 
we conquer !" and with these words of triumph upon his 
lips, fell dead. His glorious death Browning interprets 
as the fulfillment of a personal promise made by Pan to 
Pheidippides. In Browning's imaginary version of the 
afifair, Pheidippides is represented as relating his first 
adventure to the assembled archons or governors of 
Athens: picturing vividly his fleet course, like a running 
fire, over mountains and across valleys; he tells too how 
Pan promised that he should have as a personal reward 
for his great efforts final release from all toil. The 
hero believed this to mean that he should one day be free 
to return to his own home and marry the girl he loved 
best. Browning, however, shows that he felt the highest 
good the gods can grant a man is to allow him to use 
his best efforts to the very last of life in some great 
cause that is very dear to him and then to bestow upon 
him in the moment of triumph the release of death. 

STUDY OF BACKGROUND 

The background of Browning's poems, however varied 
their setting, is always to be found in the "world of men" 
in which he lived and worked. A great variety of inci- 



12 BROWNTNG'S POEMS 

dent, of course, called forth his individual poems : Words- 
worth's defection to the cause of conservatism evoked 
The Lost Leader; a sudden longing, when far out at 
sea, for a good gallop on the back of his favorite horse, 
was responsible for Hozv They Brought the Good News 
from Ghent to Ai.v; his own great love for Elizabeth 
Barrett Browning brought forth One Word More; and 
Herve Kiel was written to help raise funds for sending 
food to Paris after the siege of that city by the Germans 
in 1870-71. 

But back of every such immediate outward cause was 
always Browning's desire to meet and grapple with the 
problems of his day, to oppose to the worship of mere 
knowledge which the scientific discoveries of the time 
had fostered, an appreciation of the greater value of 
unselfish and noble personality and service inspired by 
such love as that of Christ; to oppose, for example, to 
worldly cynicism or to the mawkish pessimism of certain 
authors of his day his own courage and fine optimism, 
his conviction that "God's in His heaven: all's right with 
the world," and his firm trust that no one who strives 
for high attainments shall be utterly defeated, for though 
he appear to fail here on earth, he will find his goal 
hereafter, since God is just and puts into human hearts 
no great and worthy hopes that are impossible of ful- 
fillment sometime, somewhere. 

Perhaps, then. Browning's chief importance lies in his 
vigorous and manly defense in an age of growing doubt 
of the real essentials of Christianity, a religion transcend- 
ing creed and dogma, based upon the love of right and 
the belief that this right shall ultimately be brought to 



BROWNING'S POEMS 13 

triumph not by power and knowledge, but by the service 
of love taught mankind by such noble personalities as 
Christ. For the heroes of the poems we are here con- 
sidering — Theocrite, Herve Riel, Pheidippides — were not 
men of power and knowledge, but simple souls who in 
love and humility devoted themselves to the service of 
God and mankind. 



STUDY OF CHARACTERS 

Browning's characters are all real men and women 
a-thrill with life and inspired to action by very human 
motives, sometimes good, sometimes bad. Though of all 
classes, periods and climes, they are all selected for their 
significance in the eyes of the poet whom they always 
serve as a demonstration of his own philosophy of opti- 
mism, of struggle, and of the triumph of the spiritual 
over the material. Even when the hero is only a horse, 
as in How They Brought the Good News from Ghent 
to Aix, it is still the triumph of spirit over matter, of 
Roland's will over his body weak and exhausted by the 
strain of the terrible gallop, that inspires our admiration 
just as in the case of the man Pheidippides or the boy 
soldier of Ratisbon. 

Very frequently the characters in Browning's poems 
who are inspired by the greatest nobility of heart and 
fineness of spirit are not powerful or prominent persons 
but simple souls like Theocrite or Herve Riel, who give 
to God and mankind, spontaneously and without thought 
of reward, their humble but invaluable services. 

Sometimes, however, the character is more complex, 



14 BROWNING'S POEMS 

as in the case of the lover in Evelyn Hope. He has the 
same trust in God as has Theocrite — he says, "God above 
is great to grant and creates the love to reward the love." 
He is here using the same argument with which many- 
great tliinkers have defended their belief in the immor- 
tality of the soul; that is, that a just God would not 
put into the human heart so deep a longing, so serious 
a need for an end to which He does not intend that man- 
kind should ever attain. On just such a trust in God 
Evelyn Hope's lover, reasoning like a true philosopher, 
bases his belief that since he has missed the reward of 
his love here in this life, he w411 surely find it somewhere 
in the hereafter. What a difference between the trained 
intellect and the deep philosophical understanding of this 
man and the ingenuousness of Pheidippides who utterly 
misinterpreted the reward promised him by the god Pan ! 
/ Time and again Browning uses his characters to inter- 
pret not merely a philosophical belief but a whole period 
of history. Ruskin admired the poet's delineation of the 
Middle Ages and, speaking of The Bishop Orders His 
Tomb at Saint Praxed's, remarked: "I know no other 
piece of modern English, prose or poetry, in which there 
is so much told, as in these lines, of the Renaissance 
spirit." Says Prof. Phelps in his Browning, How to 
Know Him, "Browning permits a delirious old Bishop to 
talk a few lines and a whole period of history is written." 
So, too. The Boy and the Angel, although the whole legend 
is Browning's own invention, is a rare portrayal of the 
medieval religious spirit, and so also in his picture of 
Kentish Sir Byng and his followers in Cavalier Tunes 
he gives us the spirit of the period when Cavalier and 



BROWNING'S POEMS 1 5 

Roundhead were at each other's throats. Such expres- 
sions as, "God and King Charles," "Pym to the Devil," 
"Hampden to Hell," "Bid the crop-headed Parliament 
swing," depict thoroughly the character of the "great- 
hearted gentlemen" who uttered them,— their haughty 
feeling of superiority to the Roundheads, their narrow- 
ness of vision, and at the same time their loyalty to such 
ideals as they understood, their gallantry, and their dash- 
ing courage. 



STUDY OF CONSTRUCTION 

As we have already noted, almost all Browning's poems 
are dramatic in form. Beside his many dramatic mono- 
logues, he wrote other verses which he himself termed 
"dramatic romances'' and "dramatic lyrics/' This latter 
classification seems Hke a contradiction in terms until we 
understand that Browning gieant by it a short musical 
poem that is not distinctively subjective; that is, not dis- 
tinctly expressive of the writer's own ideas or mood. 
Browning called The Lost Leader and Home-Thoughts 
from Abroad dramatic lyrics because they embody the 
ideas and feelings of many persons other than the poet. 
Tennyson's Break! Break! Break! On Thy Cold Gray 
Stones, O Sea, on the other hand, is a pure lyric, not a 
dramatic lyric, because in it the poet himself, thinking 
of his own sorrow and sunk in the moment's mood of 
melancholy, expresses his own individuality alone. By 
a ''dramatic romance" Browning meant of course a poem 
in whicfi the narrative or story element prevails over the 



i6 BROWNING'S POEMS 

musical element; the Incident of the French Camp is a 
dramatic romance. 

Browning's most typical poetic form is, however, the 
dramatic monologue, a variation of the Shakespearian 
soliloquy, and differing from it in this respect, that while 
only one character is represented as speaking, this char- 
acter does not address his remarks to himself but to some 
other person or persons who never appear directly in the 
poem but whose very presence in the background influ- 
ences both the words and the mood of the speaker. One 
of the best examples of this form of poetry is Brown- 
ing's My Last Duchess, in which a proud duke is repre- 
sented as showing his dead wife's portrait to an envoy 
from a wealthy lord who is offering his daughter in mar- 
riage to the Duke. In this monologue the haughty noble-, 
man, by commenting upon the original of the portrait, 
lays bare all the baseness of his own heart. 

The dranmtic monologue possesses many advantages 
over the soliloquy. It has, for example, the element of 
naturalness utterly lacking in the representation of a man 
talking, often at great length, to himself as . the only 
listener, and it affords the author an opportunity to alter 
the trend of the thought as this thought is affected by 
objections understood, through remarks of the speaker, 
to have been raised by the person addressed. 

STUDY OF STYLE 

Critics have often called Browning's diction obscure, 
and to a certain extent the charge is justified. Brown- 
ing packs so much sense into so compact a measure of 



BROWNING'S POEMS 17 

words that he often shows a tendency to use very ellip- 
tical expressions, such as these lines from Pheidippides : 

( — Fennel — I grasped it a-tremble with dew — whatever 

it bode.) 
"While as for thee" ! But enough ! He was gone ! 

Sometimes, too, he omits certain elements ordinarily 
considered so important that they are almost never 
omitted by other authors. Especially is this true of the 
subject relative pronoun. In Pheidippides, for example, 
we find the phrase, 'Marry a girl I know keeps faith to 
the brave," for ''Marry a girl who^ I know, keeps faith 
to the brave." Frequently he leaves out the prepositive 
"to" before an infinitive in cases where such a construction 
seems not to be justified by present usage. In Sordello 
we find the phrase " 'Twas time expostulate" for " 'Twas 
time to expostulate." Then too the very largeness of 
Browning's thought leads at times to a rather complex 
and involved sentence-structure to bring out the relation, 
the interdependence of the ideas in one sentence. 

But once the reader has come to expect and look for 
these mannerisms, he will have little further difficulty, 
provided he has caught the spirit of Browning's phil- 
osophy, for his so-called "obscurity" arises rather from 
the depth and profundity of his thought, which admits of 
no rapid casual reading, than from peculiarities of dic- 
tion. Of course his verse does not 'in general possess the 
limpidity of Tennyson's, for example, as he was far more 
occupied with his message than with the mere musical 
flow of his lines. He fitted his versification to his sub- 
ject, When the latter was exalted in character, as in the 



1 8 BROWNING'S POEMS 

case of Evelyn Hope, the former rose to it; when the 
subject was not beautiful, the poet did not mar the effect 
by setting it to beautiful verse. How closely Browning's 
versification follows and fits his subject can best be seen 
in How They Brought the Good News, in which the line, 

I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three 

produces exactly the effect of a galloping horse thunder- 
ing along a roadway. 

Browning's Message 

It is, however, on the content of his poems that Brown- 
ing lays stress. He has a message for the world and 
the giving forth of this message rather than the produc- , 
tion of merely musical verse seems of importance to him./ 
He desires most to make men believe, as he believes that 
truth is within ourselves rather than in outward things, 
even those outward things contemplated by science ; that 
this truth is embodied in the lives and personalities of 
earth's noblest men and w^omen, of w4iom the noblest is 
Christ; and that through such personalities men and 
women may become regenerated and from them may learn 
to strive ever onward tow^ard a new and higher existence, 
with the certainty that even their apparent failures here 
shall profit them somewhere and somehow, if their striv- 
ing has been for a w^orthy aim. 

This philosophy Browning vitalizes by his manner of 
presenting it. In his hands it ceases to be an abstract 
theory and becomes a series of concrete instances of the 
trials and defeats or triumphs of real human beings. 



BROWNING'S POEMS 19 

Everywhere in his treatment of his theme Browning 
prefers the concrete to the abstract. Cavalier Tunes and 
not a dissertation upon the divine right of kings, show us 
what he thought of the royahst point of view in the seven- 
teenth century. Even his figures of speech are clear and 
direct. Note in One Word More, for example, his figu- 
rative delineation of Dante's literary attacks upon certain 
well-known and rather contemptible characters of his 
time : 

— his left hand i' the hair o' the wicked, 
Back he held the brow and pricked its stigma, 
Bit into the live man's flesh for parchment, 
Loosed him, laughed to see the writing rankle. 
Let the wretch go festering through Florence. 

With such power of vivid dramatic presentation and 
with so noble a philosophy to present, it is not to be 
doubted that though Browning's genius was unrecognized 
through a great part of his lifetime, he will continue to 
rank, as he ranks today, among the very foremost English 
poets. 

SPECIAL NOTES 

Cavalier Tunes 

1. Pressing. Impressing, recruiting. 

2. Paries. Parleys speeches. 

3. Kentish Sir Byng. The Byngs of Kent were a famous fam- 
ily of fighters. 

4. Pym. One of the leading members of the Long Parliament. 

5. Hampden. The famous Buckinghamshire squire who re- 
fused to pay his share of the "ship-money" levied by Charles I 
upon the inhabitants of inland towns. 



20 BROWNING'S POEMS 

6. Hacelrig Fienncs. Prominent rebels against the authority 
of Charles I. 

7. Young Harry. Sir Henry Vane, the Younger, a leader in 
the rebellion against Charles I. 

8. Rupert. Prince Rupert, a famous cavalry commander and 
a nephew of King Charles. 

9. Nottingham. Here in 1642 was raised the standard of King 
Charles, marking the opening of the Civil War. 

The Lost Leader 

10. Shakespeare was of us. Prof. Phelps points out the care- 
ful choice of prepositions here : Shakespeare was of the common 
democratic multitude, yet not especially for it; Milton, the true- 
hearted defender of free speech and democracy, was indeed 
for the liberals ; and Burns and Shelley were actually with them, 
having taken part, as poets, in the first literary battles for de- 
mocracy fought in Browning's own century. 

11. Pardoned in heaven. Note the large charity of Browning. 
It is his belief that even the worst of sinners is to have a 
chance to retrieve himself in another life. Compare with this 
his Apparent Failure, in which he says of the three suicides in 
the Paris Morgue : 

— what began best, can't end worst, 
Nor what God blessed once, prove accurst. 

How They Brought the Good News 

12. This poem suggests comparison with Paul Revere's Ride. 
Browning's verses are, however, acknowledged to be more spirited, 
more in keeping with the subject, than those of Longfellow. 
Compare too the sights and sounds of the various stages of the 
night and early morning with those described in Paul Revere's 
Ride. 

13. Ghent; Aix. Ghent is a city in Belgium and Aix-la- 
Chapelle is in Prussia. The two towns are about 90 miles apart 



BROWNING'S POEMS 2i 

and it is rather doubtful whether any horse, however staunch, 
could gallop such a distance. 

14. Pique. Pommel. 

15. Lokeren. This, like the other towns mentioned in the 
poem, is a real place situated on the road from Ghent to Aix. 



Evelyn Hope 

16. Note how smooth is the rhythm of this poem. It deals 
with a beautiful theme, love triumphant over death, and so is 
free from the harshness found in other poems of Browning that 
deal with unlovely or ignoble traits in man. 

17. Hinge's chink. It is a common mannerism with Browning 
to use this form of the possessive case in referring to inanimate 
objects. 



Home Thoughts from Abroad 

18. Lest you should thhik he never could recapture. Only a 
poet entitled by virtue of his wonderful power of imagination to 
be numbered among the elect, could have so beautifully explained 
why the thrush does repeat his little song. 



Home Thoughts from the Sea 

19. How can I help England? This is noteworthy as one of 
the few instances of Browning's making any display of his 
patriotism. The preceding verses Home Thoughts from Abroad 
show of course a love of English scenes and seasons which 
evidently his love for Italy and the South never subdued. 



Incident of the French Camp 

20. Ratishon. A town in Bavaria which Napoleon took by 
storm in 1809. The incident here described has a basis in fact. 
See Synopsis. 



22 BROWNING'S POEMS 

The Boy and the Angel 

21. There is no doubt in it. See Rabbi Ben E::ra: 

Rather I prize the doubt 
Low kinds exist without, 
Finished and finite clods, untroubled by a doubt. 

Browning feels that doubt is essential to progress. Elsewhere 
he speaks of the "torpor of assurance." The angel Gabriel was 
a perfect being; he had no need of progress or development; 
therefore he did not doubt. 

22. / miss my little human praise. The lesson of this poem 
has been well expressed in Pippa's New Year's Hymn from 
Pip pa Passes: 

All service ranks the same with God. 

One Word More 

23. My fifty men and ivomen. The fifty characters in the 
volume of dramatic verses called Men and Women. This work 
had just been completed by Browning. 

24. A century of sonnets. That is, one hundred sonnets. The 
verses in question are reputed to have been Vv^ritten by Raphael 
to a certain Margarita, daughter of a baker in Rome. A few 
of these sonnets still survive in their original form, evidently 
very hastily written on some sketches Raphael had done for a 
painting called the "Disputa" in the Vatican. In the British 
Museum is a copy of one of these sonnets, a very amateurish 
production. 

25. Her San Sisto names attd her Foligno. The Madonna di 
San Sisto, otherwise known as the Sistine Madonna, now in the 
possession of the Dresden Gallery, derived its name from the 
fact that in the lower part of the picture St. Sistus appears 
with St. Barbara. The Madonna di Foligno is now in the 
Vatican. It was painted in 1512 for the Church of Ara Cceli 
in Rome but in 1565 was removed to Foligno. 

26. Her that visits Florence in a vision. The Madonna del 



I 



BROWNING'S POEMS 23 

Granduca. The suggestion of a "vision" in this painting is due 
to the pecuUar manner in which the figure itself stands out 
from the background. This painting is now in the Pitti Gallery. 

27. Her that's left with lilies in the Louvre. The Madonna 
known as La belle Jardiniere representing the Virgin seated in 
a garden among lilies. 

28. Guido Rent. Guido Reni was not born until 1575, fifty- 
five years after Raphael's death, so that the book of sonnets 
must have been given him by some friend of the great artist 
or more likely was bequeathed to him by somebody who had 
in his turn received it from a friend of Raphael. 

29. Beatrice. Beatrice Portinari, immortahzed in Dante's Vita 
Nuova and in his Paradiso. Dante met her when she was a mere 
child and loved her faithfully but from a distance until her 
death at the age of twenty-four. Even after that sad event she 
was always present with him in imagination. 

30. His left hand in the hair 0' the wicked. Dante bitterly 
attacked many prominent men of his time, who in his opinion 
were vicious or criminal. Such of them as had already died 
he pictured in his Inferno as suffering all manner of horrible 
punishment in Hell. 

31. Bice. A diminutive form of Beatrice used to denote affec- 
tion. 

32. Heaven's gift takes earth's abatement. The fineness of a 
talent granted by Heaven is marred by the worldly uses to which 
it is put. 

33. He who smites the rock. As Moses did to procure water 
for the Children of Israel. 

34. "The drought was pleasant." The Biblical account states 
that the Children of Israel were almost sorry to receive the 
water, because they thereby lost a cause for "murmuring" or 
complaint against Moses. 

35. Sinai forehead's. See Note 16. When Moses came down 
from Mt. Sinai bearing the tablets containing the Law of the 
Covenant, the "skin of his face shone by reason of his speaking 
with God." 

36. The right arm's rod-sweep. The sweep with which Moses 



: 4 BROWNING'S POEMS 

smote the rock and caused the water to gush forth. Numbers 

XX, 2. 

37. Jethro's daughter. The wife of Moses, Zipporah by name. 

38. Liberal. Used to a freer sweep. 

39. Karshish, Cleon, ■ Norbert, Lippo, Roland, Andrea. All 
characters in Men and Women. 

40. London. The Brownings had recently returned from Flor- 
ence to London. 

41. Fiesole. A town three miles north of Florence situated 
on a height. 

42. Samminiato. Colloquial form of San Miniato, an ancient 
church on a hill just east of Florence. 

43. // that moon could love a mortal. In his poem Endymion 
Keats relates the story of a mortal loved by the moon. 

44. Turn a new side to her mortal. The earth during one 
revolution about the sun turns on its axis 365 times, whereas the 
moon takes exactly the same time to turn around as she re- 
quires to circle once around the earth. For this reason we always 
see one and the same side of the moon. 

45. Zoroaster. The founder of the Egyptian religion, a form 
of sun and moon-worship. 

46. Galileo. The medieval scientist who discovered the fact 
that the earth moves about the sun. He was forced by the 
Church to recant and retract his statements. 

47. Keats. See Note 43. 

48. Portent of an iceberg. It is not always fortunate to be 
loved by a goddess. 

49. Aaron; Nadab; Abihu. With Moses and seventy elders 
of the people these men went up Mt. Sinai and "saw the God 
of Israel and did eat and drink." Exodus xxiv, 9. Browning's 
description of God's appearance before the awe-struck elders 
follows the Biblical version very closely. 

Herve Riel 

50. Hogne. The British and Dutch Allies defeated the forces 
of Louis XIV at La Hogue, off the north coast of Normandy. 
See Synopsis. 



BROWNING'S POEMS 25 

51. Saint Malo. A small island at the mouth of the river 
Ranee, having a harbor perfectly dry when the tide is out. 

52. Herve Riel. When Browning first published this poem, 
the story of Herve Riel was declared even by the people of 
Saint Malo to be pure fiction. A search through the archives 
of the French Admiralty later revealed the fact that it is essen- 
tially true. Herve Riel, however, did not demand merely one 
day to visit his wife La Belle Aurore but a permanent leave of 
absence that he might spend the rest of his days with his good 
spouse at Le Croisic, where Browning wrote this poem. 

53. Plymouth. An important English naval station on the 
S. W. coast. 

54. Tourville. A French admiral who two years previously 
had inflicted a crushing defeat upon the Allied fleet and later, 
in 1693, administered another severe beating to his adversaries 
at Cape St. Vincent. 

55. Solidor. A fort on the mainland built in the 14th century. 

56. Greve. This word in French means "beach" and is the 
term applied to the sands for miles about Mont St. Michel left 
bare when the tide is low. 

57. Bore the hell. Won the victory. 

Pheidippides 

58. This poem is based upon a story told by the Greek historian 
Herodotus. 

59. Her of the aegis and spear. Athene. The aegis was a 
shield given to the goddess by Zeus. 

60. Ye of the how and the hiiskin. Diana, goddess of the 
chase. 

61. Pam. The god of music, dance, and pleasure. He is 
represented as having the thighs, legs and hoofs of a goat. 

62. Archons. The nine chief magistrates who governed Athens. 

63. Slave's trihute, water and earth. The Persian king, Da- 
rius, before his second attempted invasion of Greece in 499 B.C., 
sent heralds to most of the Grecian states, to demand of them 
earth and water as tokens of their submission to Persian rule. 



26 BROWNING'S POEMS 

64. No zvarfare, whatever the odds. A Spartan superstition 
held that no war should be entered upon before the moon was 
at its full. 

65. Filleted victim. A little band of ribbon, called a fillet, was 
tied about the hair of victims about to be sacrificed to the gods. 

66. Fames. Mt. Parnassus, near Thermopylae, the abode of 
the Muses. On its slope lay Delphi, the oracle sacred to Apollo. 
This was a place where it was natural Pheidippides should meet 
Pan. 

67. Miltiades. Formerly tyrant of the Chersonesus. In the 
Persian Wars he showed such energy and ability that upon the 
approach of the Persian fleet, the Athenians elected him one of 
their ten commanders. Contrary to the advice of his nine col- 
leagues, Miltiades insisted upon meeting the Persians at once, 
while the war-enthusiasm of the Athenians was still high. The 
other nine generals, inspired by his courage, consented to his 
plan and, although they were expected to command the army in 
rotation, each for one day, all gave over to Miltiades their days 
of command in order to invest the whole power in a single 
person. The result was the great victory of the Greeks at 
Marathon. 

68. Fennel. Symbol of Marathon, the "fennel-field." 

69. So to end gloriously. As Browning believed a man's life 
could best end, at the moment of triumph for some great cause 
for which he has fought bravely throughout his life. As he says 
in his poem Frospice: 

— Let me fare like my peers 
The heroes of old, 
Bear the brunt, in a minute pay Hfe's glad arrears 
Of pain, darkness and cold. 



QUESTIONS 

I. What effect did the conditions of living, general public 
opinion, or phase in the development of English literature have 
upon Browning? (See Synopsis of Lost Leader, Note 19, and 
Biography.) 



BROWNING'S POEMS 27 

II. With regard to two of the following points discuss a poem 
by Browning: (a) contents of poem; (b) interest of subject 
matter to you; (c) ornamentation or figurative expression. (See 
Synopsis, Study of Style and Note 18.) 

III. Imagine you are discussing with a friend the Selected 
Poems by Browning. Give four of your friend's comments on 
the poems and your replies. (Sec Study of Construction, Study 
of Style, etc.) 

IV. Write a paragraph concerning the historical accuracy or 
historic inaccuracy of Herve Riel, An Incident of the French 
Camp, or Pheidippides. (See Notes 50, 52, 20, 58, 63, 64, and 
67.. Also the Synopses of all three poems.) 

V. Refer to a poem which in your opinion is a typical example 
of the work of Browning and give in your own words the 
meaning of the poem. (See Synopsis of Evelyn Hope and Study 
of Characters, Paragraph 3.) 

VI. What poem by Browning have you read that reflects or 
embodies an experience of your own? Show with some detail 
how this poem reflects or embodies your experience. 

VII. Show how Browning's poems reflect his own life and 
character. 

VIII. Write about One Word More, touching on the type that 
it illustrates, the thought and feeling, the rhythm, and other 
qualities that make it beautiful. (See Synopsis, Notes 32 and 44, 
and comment on One Word More in Study of Style.) 

IX. Quote two descriptive or figurative passages from Brown- 
ing's poems that seem to you particularly effective and tell why 
you think them so. (See Note 18 and last two paragraphs of 
Study of Style.) 

X. Show what conditions in Browning's life and character 
were favorable to his success. (See Biography, Paragraphs 
2 and 3.) 

XL In what poems does Browning show that he has caught 
the spirit of the historical period treated of? (See concluding 
paragraph of Study of Background.) 



28 BROWNING'S POEMS 

XII. Discuss Browning's attitude toward men who had proved 
unfaithful to their ideals. In your discussion refer to a definite 
poem or poems. (See Note ii and synopsis of Lost Leader.) 

XIII. Quote from one of Browning's poems the best example 
of his ability to make the rhythm of his poems fit the thought 
and tell why you consider the passage quoted such an example. 
(See Note i6 and Study of Style, Paragraph 3.) 

XIV. Show by reference to individual poems what Browning 
believed about a hereafter. (Note 11 and Study of Characters, 
Paragraph 3.) 

XV. Discuss with reference to at least two poems that you 
have read Browning's love for his country. (See Note 19.) 

XVI. Mention two poems by Browning that you have read 
in which the triumph of the will or spirit over the body is 
celebrated. Show how Browning portrays this triumph. (See 
Note 69 and synopsis of Incident of the French Camp.) 

XVII. Show by reference to a poem by Browning that you 
have read that Browning did not condemn men for being troubled 
by doubt in matters of religion and faith. (See Note 21.) 

XVIII. Relate the experience in Browning's life to which we 
owe One Word More. (See Synopsis and Biography.) 

XIX. (a) Prove by rather detailed reference to Browning's 
poems that he was essentially a dramatic poet, {h) Mention one 
poem of his that you have read which is purely lyrical rather 
than dramatic in form. (See General Nature of Work, Par. i; 
Study of Construction; and synopsis of One Word More.) 

XX. What was Browning's favorite poetic form? Compare 
this with the poetic form used by Shakespeare in Hamlet's 
speech beginning, "To be or not to be," and show what advan- 
tages the form preferred by Browning has over the form so 
much used by Shakespeare. (See last two paragraphs of Study 
of Construction.) 

XXI. Show by reference to at least two poems of Browning 
that he was above scorning simple-hearted men and women an4 



BROWNING'S POEMS 29 

considered them of as great value to the world as men and 
women of great intellectual attainments. (See Note 22.) 

XXII. Mention an experience in Browning's life that shows 
him to have been a man of decision in practical matters, not 
merely a preacher of courage and decision in his writings. (See 
Biography.) 

XXIII. Which is your favorite poem by Browning? State 
why you like this poem and what use you can make of its 
lesson in your own life. 

XXIV. Compare Browning with Longfellow in regard to (a) 
musical features of this verse, (b) value and depth of the 
moral truths taught by their poems. (See Note 12 and Study 
of Style, Paragraph 3.) 

XXV. To what peculiarities of diction is Browning's so-called 
"obscurity" due? To what qualities in his thought? (See Notes 
16 and 35. Also Study of Style.) 

XXVI. Mention one English poet beside Browning who made 
use of the dramatic monologue, and name at least one of the 
poems written by this other poet in this particular poetic form. 
(See Preparatory Information, Paragraph 2.) 

XXVII. Discuss at some length Browning's philosophy ex- 
plaining why he has been called a "truly Christian poet." Illus- 
trate by reference to two or three of his poems that you have 
read. (See Study of Background.) 

XXVIII. Write a paragraph or two explaining what features 
of Browning's philosophy make him an optimist. Illustrate by 
a rather detailed reference to such of his poems as you have 
read. (See Note 11 and Study of Characters, Paragraph 3.) 

XXIX. Show by a reference to such of Browning's poems as 
you have read that the poet must have been a very well-informed 
man (a) as regards history, (6) as regards art, (c) as regards 
Biblical lore. (See Notes 2, 6, 9, 20, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 35, 37, 
49, 52, 54, 58, 63, 64.) 

XXX. Write a paragraph or two to prove that Browning 
attached more importance to the thought and content of his 



30 BROWNING'S POEMS 

verse than to its merely musical qualities. Illustrate by refer- 
ence to the poems vv^ith which you are acquainted. (Study of 
Style, Par. 3. See also Note 16.) 

XXXI, Compare Hoiv They Brought the Good News with 
Paul Revere's Ride by Longfellow. In your comparison answer 
the following questions: 

(a) In which poem does the rhythm suggest more vividly 

a horse-back ride? 
(6) In which poem are the descriptions of the places passed 

through more vivid? 
(c) Which poet, Browning or Longfellow, appears to know 

more about horses? 
{d) Which poem is more interesting to you? (See Note 12.) 

XXXII. 

God above 
Is great to grant, as mighty to make, 
And creates the love to reward the love. 

From what poem are the lines above taken and what do they 
mean? (See synopsis of Evelyn Hope. Also Study of Char- 
acters, Paragraph 3.) 



BIOGRAPHY 

Robert Browning was born at Camberwell, London, May 7, 
1812, and died at Venice, Dec. 12, 1889. 

Browning was favored above most poets in the circumstances 
of his life. His father was a man of considerable means, an 
employee of the Bank of England, and Robert was at all times 
free from financial worry, so that he was always able to write 
what he chose and just as he chose without regard to the 
question of the popularity of his work with the reading public. 

Browning's parents did not believe in forcing their son to 
pursue any fixed course of study. In the Browning home was 
an excellent library and the boy read and studied those books 
which appealed to him, the father hiring private tutors in those 



BROWNING'S POEMS 31 

subjects in which his son showed special proficiency. Nor was 
his physical development neglected. He had expert private in- 
struction in fencing, boxing and riding, of which latter exer- 
cise he was always passionately fond. The result of this some- 
what irregular method of tuition was that Browning became one 
of the best educated men of his time. 

His freedom from financial worries enabled him to follow his 
own literary bent to the fullest extent. For years he was prob- 
ably the most unpopular poet in England, but after the publi- 
cation of Paracelsus in 1835 his genius began to be recognized, 
until today he ranks among the greatest of English poets. 

In 1845 Browning met Ehzabeth Barrett, herself a poetess of 
rare genius and one of his most ardent literary admirers, and 
a little more than a year later the two were wedded and left 
for Italy despite very strong objections on the part of the bride's 
father, who never forgave his daughter and whose opposition 
to the whole afifair was so great that the two lovers actually 
had to run away. 

The Brownings spent most of their married life in Italy, where 
in 1861 Mrs. Browning died, leaving a young son behind. All 
her life she had been an invalid and the first happiness she ever 
knew was her love affair with her brother-poet. Her devotion 
to Browning is wonderfully expressed in her Sonnets from the 
Portuguese and the poet's devotion to her still lives in such 
poems as One Word More. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Critical 

Robert Browning. Hoiv to Know Him, by Prof. William 
Lyon Phelps. 

An Intro deletion to the Study of Robert BrouWmg's Poetry, 
by Prof. Hiram Corson. 

Studies in Literature, by Edward Dowden. (Chapter on 
Browning.) 



32 BROWNING'S POEMS 

Victorian Poefs, by E. C. Stedman. (Chapter on Browning.) 

Handbook to Robert Browning's Works, by Mrs. S. Orr. 

Poets and Problems, by Geo. Willis Cooke. Boston: 1886. 
(pp. 269-388 devoted to Browning.) 

Browning as a Philosophical and Religions Poet, by Henry 
Jones. 

Essays on Poetry and Poets, by the Hon. Roden Noel. Lon- 
don: 1886. (pp. 256-282 devoted to Browning.) 

Browning's Women, by Mary E. Burt. 

Robert Browning: Essays and Thoughts, by John T. Nettle- 
ship. 

Browning's Message to his Time: his Religion, Philosophy, and 
Science, by Edward Berdoe. 

Life and Letters of Robert Brow^iing, by Mrs. Sutherland Orr. 



